When shows get paired together, interesting parallels can be found. Maybe it’s just the nature ofcomedy in 2012 that all sitcoms share some similarities, but it’s still weird to see shows deal with similar themes on the same night. It’s the TV equivalent of the pet and its owner starting to look alike. This week, we watched as Modern Family and Suburgatory both dealt with the continuing evisceration of a character we used to enjoy and people being placed in uncomfortable situations that we weren’t entirely ready for.

Developing winning characters is a pretty difficult task in today’s TV landscape. With so much offered to viewers, many shows will go to great lengths to make sure that a popular character remains that way. Sometimes it can lead to interesting places, and sometimes it can take us to a place where Cam climbs into a tree dressed as a cat from the musical. In season one, Cam was well-drawn, had multiple dimensions, and was one of the best characters on television. Instead of continuing to cultivate this character, Modern Family completely flattened him out and gave up on a lot of his depth as a character in the service of some cheap laughs about how gay he is. In what was mostly an enjoyable episode, Cam’s time as community theater understudy and part time tree activist just seemed silly by comparison. Furthermore, it caused Lily to have her most lines to date by a significant margin. Any storyline that features that many lines from Lily needs to be taken down off the idea board in the office. Read More...